They call this “The Other Iraq”. The one where people still think rivers are for swimming in, not dumping headless bodies.

The one where Jotyar Tile, a US soldier, can shop at the market on Saturdays without fear of being kidnapped or killed.

The one where life is generally so calm there’s serious talk of developing tourism.

This is also the part of Iraq where you almost never see the Iraqi flag or hear anyone call themselves “Iraqi”. Instead, 5-million Kurds know it as Kurdistan, a veritable country within a country.

“All the negatives aside, we’ve managed our region,” says Vian Ahmad Pasha, a member of the Kurdish Parliament. “There is peace in our land. This is a very important point.”

While other parts of Iraq remain paralysed by insurgents and extremists, the Kurds are building a comparatively safe and progressive society. There’s so much construction, schools, highways, luxury housing, that Kurdistan is being compared to Dubai and Kuwait at the start of their boom times.

And like the rich Gulf states, Kurdistan floats on a vast sea of oil. For now, Kurds say they are willing to share their oil wealth and remain part of Iraq, albeit a largely separate one with its own government, flag and security forces. But it’s no secret that Kurds distrust their Arab countrymen, that they think the main Iraqi government is a dysfunctional mess and that they hope to have a nation of their own.

“I’m not in a hurry,” says Imad Sedeek, a Kurdish hotel owner. “Let us get our energy infrastructure, our roads, a good higher education system. When we have everything, then we are a state.”

... contd.